“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” is often said to be the most famous movie line in English. What is the most famous line in your language?

Malayalam movie watchers are notorious for bringing in cinema dialogues into daily banter. This is probably because Malayalam cinema is all about reality and real-life situations. Unrealistic cinema is not welcome in Malayalam and one of the prerequisites for a movie to succeed at the box-office is the degree to which it sounds realistic.

So it’s only natural that over the years, several famous movie dialogues have become etched in the minds of Malayalis. Many of them are attributed to Malayalam superstar Mohanlal who is known to belt out kick-ass dialogues in most of his movies. Here are a few classics that are used more often…

Savarigiriri!

Meaning: No particular meaning as such.

People use this when they have nothing cool to say…or when they can’t find a right word for something 😛 LOL

Meaning: What all commotion there was? Malappuram knife, Machine gun, bomb, end of a pestle…finally, Pavanaayi became a corpse.

This is often used when big plans made by someone else flop miserably, leaving you in the lurch.

We are not begarrs!!!

Meaning: We are not beggars!

Used when you have a dire need to shut someone up who is using too much English in their talk. Actually the whole dialogue is used often…especially the ‘Let it be the last time…..tongue!’ part in Jayan’s typical style.

Vattanalley?

Meaning: Are you nuts?

You need to watch the movie ‘Kilukkam’ to know why this simple word gets almost all Malayalis to crack up.

Lelu allu! Lelu allu! Lelu allu! Azhichu vidu!

Meaning: Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Untie me!

Profusely apologizing for something horrendously stupid that you did making you end up in a mess.

Njaanum Joji-yum adichi pirinji…doosman, doosman!

Meaning: Joji and I broke up…enemies, enemies!

Open declaration of a broken friendship.

Sense undavanam…sensibility undavanam, sensitivity undavanam.

Meaning: You must have sense, sensibility and sensitivity.

Just a kickass dialogue from an old Malayalam movie that people have been using ever since it was released to point out to the importance of something they are passionate about and the other person is obviously not interested in.

Meaning: You won’t let me go? You won’t let me go? So you won’t let me go anywhere from here? Uncouth dog! How dare you come and stand in front of me even now? Today is Durgashtami. I will kill you and drink your blood and dance!…..Ganga!!

The dialogue that won actress Shobhana a National Award. Snippets of this iconic dialogue is often spoken by people as a threat…not in a serious way, though.

There are so many many more! I could go on an on!! 😀 This kinda shows how much our cinema is a part of our lives.